Thawing apparatus.



W. S. NEWHALL.

'[HAWING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED MAY 6. 191e` Patented Sept. 3, 1918..

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W. S. NEWHALL.

THAWING APPARATUS.

ARPLrcATloN FILED MAY 6. 1915.

1 ,277,996. PntentedSept. 3, 1918..

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' ceilin WALTER S. NEWHALL, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOB, TO THE TAI/.EER` S. NEWHALL COMPANY, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

THAWLNG- APPARATUS.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 6, 1918 Serial No. 95,954.

To all whom it may concern.' c

Be it known that I, WALTER S. NnwnALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the count-y of Cuyahoga and State of (hio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Thawing Appa ratas, of which the following is a full, clear. and exact description, reference being had Yto the accompanying drawings.

The object of this invention is to provide an etlicient apparatus for thawing frozen material in frcightcars. as, for example, coal. ore. etc. Broadly speaking the appa rains comprises a long .house or building Aprovided with a track on which cars, with the material to be. thawed. may be run, and means for conducting heated air to tho space beneath the cars and opposite the` sides of the cars, such air (reduced in temperature b v its thawing action), being conducted from the upper portion ot' the building to a suitable position where it. is reheated and again delivered to the interior of the building.

My thawing apparatus may be embodied in an equipment having one track or parallel tracks. The heating and blowing devices, as weil as the main ducts for hot air and return ducts, may be located at any convenient point; for inst-ance, it is convenient to place the blower house on top ot the thawing building in an intermediate position and provide hot air and ret-urn ducts in the space between the ceiling and roof of thc building, as shown and claimed in Patent No. 1,044,230. The walls and roof may be made wit-h internal spaces filled with suitable insulating material. It is to be understood that these variousl features may be modified as conditions render desirable` The drawing illust-rates the apparatus einbodied in a simple form of single track house. Figure 1 is a side elevation (with intermediate portions broken out), of the thawing building; Fig. 2 is a horizontal cross section of a. portion of the saine on a largersoale; Fig. 3 is a Vertical cross section on a. still larger scale.

The building shown in the drawing comprises outside vertical walls 10 and 11, a roof 12, interior ceilin 13, and an intermedia-tely located blower ouse 14, the iioor of which is substantially (io-incident with-the 13. The space between the ceiling 13 an the roof 12 is preferably divided by partitions 16 and 17, into a centrally located 'ret-urn tine 18 (communicating with the in- .20 and 21.

It is to be understood that Within the blower house is a. blowing and heating means, designed to receive the moistureladen cooler air from the return Hue 1S and to discharge the saine through the h-ot tlues 2O and 2l. This blowing and heating means is indicated diagramimitically inv dotted lines in Fig. 3, where 30 indicates the blower, 31 an engine for driving the same, 32 'a steam heated drier. The drier is shown as connecting,directly with'the Hue 18, as indicated at 33; the intake of the blower is coupled with the drier (indicated at 3s), and the discharge from the blower is direct-ed by conduits, indicated at 36 and 37, to the main hot air iiues 20 and 2l.

To distribute the hot air, from the fines 2O and 21, into the interior of the thawing house in a way in which it will come beneath the cars and thus rise through the material therein, and the rest of it into a position where it is discharged against the sides, of the cars, heating those sides, so that material adjacent thereto .is quickly thawed. As most of the cars carrying frozen bulk material are dump cars, having inclined bottoms, the freezing which most interferes with the discharge, is the freezing of the material to the bottoni and to the sides. By my method of thawing I directthe hot. air principally against these parts, so that material is first loosened Lt'roni the bottom and sides of the cars, and thus is in a condition to be dumped, even though pieces of the material remain frozen to other pieces.

By freeing the material from the car bottom and sides, the initial discharging movement given to it is sufficientto break the pieces of material from each other, eventliough the entire mass is not entirely thawed. Accordingly, I can accomplish a suliicicnt thawing for practical purposes in a quicker time than ywhere the heat delivered is not concentrated as described.

To deliver' the heat partly against the bottom of the cars and partly against. the sides,- I provide conduits connecting With thehot air tlues 2O and 21, and leading downwardly therefrom along the interior of the' side walls 10 and l1, and some discharging against the sides of the cars and others continuing beneath the adjacent, rail and discharging upwardly at the center of `the track. The drawing clearly shows this arrangement, wherein l() indicates the hot air conduits discharging at 41 opposite the side of the car, and 42 are the conduits extending at 43 beneath the trackway and discharging upwardly at i4, between the rails. In Figs. 2 and 3, 50 indicates the usual rails and 51 ties, the upturned portions 44 of the conduits 42 being designed to stand bet\\'een adjacent ties.

It will be noted that inside of the thawing chamber I arrange on each wall the conduits 40 and 42, located alternately,and the arrangement along one wall is staggered with reference to that on the other, so that each short conduit 40 comes opposite one of the long conduits 42. This makes a symmetrically balanced construction, and the same quantity of air is delivered through each of the ilues 20 and 21, and the respective discharge pipes.

To economize space I prefer to make the conduits 'i0 and 42 in the form of flattened rectangular pipes along the inner side of the vertical walls of the building. The lower portions of the conduits 42 may, however, conveniently be rounded, as shown in Fig. 3.

It will be seen that my thawing apparatus is simple and comparatively cheap to oonstruct. It directs the heated air where it will be most useful in accomplishing an effective thawing, and it receives the moistureladen air at the top of the building and suitably reheats it and returns it.

Having thus described my invention, what l claim is:

l. An apparatus for thawing bulk materials in cars, consisting of a building adapted to contain the cars, and means for: discharging heated air directly against theibottoms of the cars and directly against the sides of the cars, to effectively free the load from the bottom and walls of the car.

2. In a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building, a trackway therein, conduits for hot air leading downwardly along one of the walls of the building, said conduits being arranged to alternately discharge inwardly against the sides of the cars on the track and upwardly against the bottoms thereof.

3. In a thawing apparatus for cars, the combination of a building, a trackway therein,lconduits alon the walls of the building, some of said con uits extending beneath the adjacent rail of the track and discharging' upwardly between the track rails, and others. of said conduits discharging from the sides of the walls, and means for supplying heated air to said conduits. v

4. ln a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building7 a trackway therein, conduits for hot air on opposite sides of the traclrway, some of said conduits continuing beneath the adjacent rail of the track and discharging upwardly between the rails, others of said conduits terminating at an intermediate position on the walls of the building and discharging inwardly, the conduits discharging inwardly on one side of the building being located opposite those conduits on the other side of the building which continue beneath the track.

5. In a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building including a chamber containing a trackway, a series of individual ducts leading inwardly from the side of the trackway chamber and adapted to discharge air upwardly against the bottoms of cars standing on the tra-ck, a heating and blowing plant at the top of the building7 and means for conducting heated air from. said plant to said individual ducts.

6. In a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building including a chamber con- ,taining a trackway, a series of individual ducts leading from the side of the traclrway and having their points of discharge beneath cars on the track, a heating and blowing plant at the top of the buildin and a longitudinal main duct within said building and adapted to convey heated air from the heating and blowing plant to said individual ducts.

7. In a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building including a chamber containing a trackway, a series of individual ducts leading from the side of the trackway beneath one rail of the track and discharging upwardly between the rails, a heating and blowing plant at the top of the building, a longitudinal main duct within said building and adapted to convey heated air from the heating and blowing plant to said individual ducts, and means for returning the cooled air from the trackway chamber to the blowing and heating plant.V

8. ln a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building including a chamber containing a trackway, a series of individual ducts leading from various points at the side of the trackway beneath one rail of the track and discharging upwardly between the rails, a series of individual conduits discharging inwardly at various points from the two sides of the trackway chamber, a heating and blowing plant at the top of the building, longitudinal main ducts within said buildinnr adapted to convey heated air from the he ting and blowing plant tosaid individual ducts, and means for returning the cooled air from the trackway chamber to thc blowing and heating plantn 9. ln a thawing apparatus, the combination of a building including a chamber having a trackway, a series of conduits having orifices some of which are between the rails of the track and others of which are at an intermediate height on the side walls of the chamber, and means for feeding hot .air to said conduits.

10. In a 'thawing apparatus, the combination of a building including a chamber having a trackway, means for discharging heated air upwardly between the rails of the track and inwardly from the two side walls of the chamber at points adapted t0 be opposite the sides of cars standing on the track,

a blowing and heating apparatus,

means for the cooled air from the trackway chamber t0 the' blowing and heating apparatus. y e

In testimony whereof I hereunto afix my signature.

WALTER S. NEWHALL. 

